Scrap-booking your Quince
This article is part of our ultimate series exploring Quinceañera photography. For a deeper dive, check out our full guide: Ultimate Guide to Quinceañera Photography. It's your go-to resource for everything photo and video related!
A creative way to remember your special day.
The entire process of celebrating the momentous occasion of entering an age that is so important to teenagers thanks to the many changes, emotional growth and responsibilities it implies, can be turned into a cool scrap-booking album in which you can combine your thoughts, pictures, and memories for future generations to enjoy.
There are endless options. So take your time to figure out what you like and begin filling out those pages now because before you know it, you will have too many experiences to capture, or you will be so busy planning your party that this detail will be forgotten. So, don’t risk having your memories erase with time.
TRADITIONAL STYLE:
Scrap-booking, to some people, is an art that can be created with hundreds of items found in arts and crafts shops, scissors, frames, albums, craft paper, stickers, and more. Also, you can choose from hundreds of themes to create a photo album that reflects your personality.
You can use this album to create photo compositions. For example, place pictures of the day you tried on your Quince gown together with a fabric sample of the dress you chose, or pictures of practice days with your court together with a diagram of the choreography. You can also save the best cards you receive and a picture of the people who gave them to you, a copy of your speech, pictures of the different hairstyles and makeup you tried and write comments for each… and everything you want using the many styles of composition used by scrap-bookers to make memories even more memorable.
A few tips:
• Use a different theme for each page, preferably odd pages. This way you can make your compositions stand out and arrange them harmoniously.
• Try to alternate the number and placement of the pictures from one page to another to make your album more interesting.
• Pay attention to detail. For example, if you went out with your friends after practicing your choreography, write down what each of them ordered and how this reflects their personality. If you have pictures of the day you tried on your dress, write down your thoughts when you saw yourself on the mirror.
NOTEBOOK STYLE:
If you don’t like being formal, you can opt for a notebook in which you can draw, paste notes from friends, pictures of funny moments, pictures of the tons of shoes and dresses you tried on, or even the hardships you faced during the planning. You can take formal or silly pictures about your sleeplessness and anxieties to tell your story and drive away those feelings. A picture can tell much about a person’s true feelings. Later in time you will be able to reminisce these memories as if it happened yesterday because they will be captured in pictures, descriptions, narratives, comments, cut-outs, current news, pictures of your favorite artists, lyrics, pets, comic characters, drawings, and scribbles that only make sense to you.
Write down every experience, from the moment you wake up until get back home. Even if some of your stories, cut-outs or drawings seem ridiculous, they are part of your experience and will become important once they are noted down.
Tips:
• You can purchase a hardcover book with acid-free paper in an arts and crafts store.
• Use art materials, markers, and paint that don’t deteriorate with time or damage pictures as well as the appropriate glue.
• When you print full color images and pictures, make sure to use a material that doesn’t fade away with time. Some printers can produce a beautiful image but can become damaged quickly.
Remember that this is a free style. So, forget about prejudice and begin creating your notebook as soon as possible!
Parallel Stories
Although it is best that you capture your own memories, you can also ask an aunt or friend who loves scrap-booking to create your photo album. Remember that this type of album is not only a collection of pictures with beautiful decorations, but a book that tells a story as well.
You mom can also have her own photo album made from her own point of view. This way you can have a parallel story. For example, Carolina Fletes from Altadena, a mother of three daughters, told us she began scrap-booking because her mom would place pictures in an album but would not write anything about them. After some time, they could not remember what was going through their minds, their age, or any comments they made when each picture was taken. So, she decided to do something different with her daughters. “I like to tell a story in a chronological way. Take pictures during the course of events and write small notes about what we said, if we were having fun, if something strange happened. This way it is not only a beautiful album, but a storybook as well.”
